The Graham Smith Site

After moving apartment (again) and being without broadband until it gets activated, I was in desperate need of some internet access. My life as a freelancer kind of depends on this…

I was faced with the following possibilities:

• Spend all my days in Starbucks making the most of my rewards card and either bankrupting myself or dying from over-caffienation.
• ‘Drop by’ friends and acquaintances offices/homes and consume their Internets – I don’t have many of these. Could be a problem.
• Rent a hotdesk at one or two known locations around the city. ~£17 a day is, however, what nightmares are made of.

Fortunately, thanks to Mr @jonthebeef and his recent trip to Japan, I learnt about the wondrous MiFi, which is simply a portable WiFi hotspot that connects to a 3G or even faster high speed internet HSDPA (You don’t want to know what that stands for. Trust me).

There are a few models floating about, on networks such as Vodafone and 3. I bought the model from 3 as they provide the best, fastest and cheapest 3G data plans.

So, I walked in to a 3 store. I doubled checked some of the finer details and clarified the monthly tariffs for future reference. 5 minutes later I was out the door with MiFi in hand and a SIM with 1GB of data already topped up. The device itself costs £49.99 and you have to buy some amount of data on purchase with it as part of the SIM package: 1GB – £10, 3GB – £15, or 7GB – £25. As I was still getting home broadband, I opted out of a monthly tariff, but the tariffs seemed pretty decent.

The device itself is small. Shorter, narrower, as thick as my 32GB iPhone and about as heavy. I’ll let you decide how attractive it is, but the fact that my eyes haven’t melted yet must mean it’s doing something right.

After the initial charging, which it suggests is 12 hours but actually turned out to be more like 6, I was ready to set it up. This is where it gets all space-age. And by that, I mean to get it up and running you need to hold down three buttons for two seconds each, consecutively, almost like an ignition sequence. In under a minute it’s on, broadcasting the WiFi and connected to either 3G or better. Next, turn on the device of your choosing. Find the provided network name, unique to each device. Type in the provided password, and you’re done.

There are 5 icons on the display that show the statuses of the device. Oddly, they turn off after about 10 seconds so you don’t know if it’s even on at a glance. A push of one of its buttons fixes that, but it would be nice if you could at least see which data connection it’s currently on.

Getting the fastest connection is a bit random. I’ve had moments where shifting it around my table switched it between 3G and HSDPA. Not that it really mattered, as the speed of this thing is astonishing. I managed to upload the two pictures I took of the device onto Flickr at 3MB each and it didn’t even blink. It’s noticeably slower on each initial page load, and especially pages with lots of frequent small connections. Google Maps slowed it down a bit with its constant accessing of small images. But once it gets going, you’ll barely believe it wasn’t your 20Mb home connection. I’ve heard 3′s 3G coverage is excellent. Though, since I’ve only used the MiFi at home so far, I can’t comment.

The battery life is decent. I’ve been using it most of the day, at about 6 hours of constant use before the battery ran out. Of course, you can use it connected into the mains, so that’s not a huge concern. And it does mean that it will keep up with your laptop battery when out and about, which is probably as long as you’d need it for.

The main issue I have with device, isn’t actually with the device, but rather the fact that the top-up data you buy only lasts 30 days from the point of purchase. So however good value the 7GB is at £25, it’s let down by the need to use it within the month.

Ultimately, I’m impressed with my kawaii little MiFi. What prompted me to get this over a 3G USB dongle is that I can use it for multiple gadgets and not just my laptop, with the ability to then network between them. If I were ever to buy an iPad, I wouldn’t need the extortionate 3G version with data tariff. And after my O2 broadband is set up at home, I can still see myself throwing this into a pocket when I’m out and about, completely removing the shackles from a home office, and allowing a true work anywhere lifestyle.

I hope that’s helped clear up any questions you had about it.